A company is unlikely to gain satisfied and loyal customers when they feel they've been duped. Companies that employ stealth marketing — otherwise known as undercover or guerilla marketing — hire shills to pitch products or services to potential but unsuspecting consumers.

When an employee underperforms, supervisors must decide whether to fire that person or wait to see whether performance improves. In the balance are the transition costs of finding a replacement and getting that person up to speed mdash; costs could be saved if the original employee improves.

The recent explosion of corporate scandals has everyone wondering — why do organizations become corrupt? How can we build safeguards against systemic corruption? And, is an individual able to change a corrupt workplace culture without paying too high a price?

The supermarket sample is a familiar ploy, but those tasty bites appear to have more impact than marketers imagined.

The meltdown of the subprime mortgage industry, often associated with the lower end of the U.S. housing market, continues to spread upward, bringing uncertainty into the jumbo mortgage loan market (loans above $417,000).

IRS officials estimate some $290 billion dollars that should have come into federal coffers in 2001 never made it into Uncle Sam's pockets. But, take heart. The IRS has a seven-component strategy for bringing in the bucks.

As the stock market continues to shake following the crash of the subprime market, all eyes are on the Federal Reserve. Now more than ever it's important to understand how the Fed works. For example, what is the federal funds rate and how does it differ from the discount rate?

Companies typically try to acquire the kind of customers that are immediately profitable, or show the most potential for long term value.

The soaring cost of prescription drugs is a major concern in the United States, but drugs in one important category — biopharmaceuticals, or drugs produced through biotechnology — actually do not cost more in the United States. Michael F.

Michael Vick's apparent involvement in the brutal "sport" of dog fighting is the latest incident to focus attention on celebrity endorsements.